2012 NBA Draft Profile: Anthony Davis/Michael Kidd-Gilchrist

NBA Draft Projection: #1

Possible Teams: New Orleans Hornets

Size: 6’10

Birth Date (Age): 3/11/1993 (19)

The NBA drafts for potential. General Managers look for athleticism, youth, size, ‘upside’, and personality. All traits that can’t be taught and must be found. As a 6’10″, 19 year old (freshmen), with a great attitude and freakish athleticism for the 222 lb body, Anthony Davis is the clear cut #1 selection in the 2012 NBA Draft.

Davis’ story has been well documented. In high school he was a 6’3″ point guard looking at Junior-College basketball. An 8″ multi-million dollar growth spurt saw his exposure to the media sky rocket along with the attention of John Calipari. His extremely successful year at Kentucky saw Davis score 14.2 points a game on 1.2 points per possession, marking him as the second most efficient big man in the draft behind only Ricardo Ratliffe.

His knack for knowing where the ball will land scored him a 10.4 rebound average and the size and athleticism earned a 4.7 blocks/game mark breaking with it records and spirits of Kentucky opponents. He’s a game changer and his presence saw offenses completely change around his appearence on the defense.

Davis’ personality is charming and sincere but that nice-guy attitude didn’t get in the way of his on court performances, as despite always have a smile on his face he would bang with the biggest and best of opponents.

The main knock against Davis is likely the fact that his post-up game was rather hidden but many aren’t holding it against him as a weakness, just an unknown. This is because many opposing teams would double Davis as soon as the ball came to him, leaving him with easy options of passing to open teammates or passing it to the weak side of the paint accounting for his 1.4 assist/game. Overall, post up points made up 13.5% of his totals, well behind the average of his peers (34%).

Being the complete package for the NBA doesn’t guarantee success, but in this case it most certainly guarantees the New Orleans Hornets’ will see Anthony Davis in NOLa next season.